Wasteful Madrid held at home
Real Madrid paid the price for their profligacy as they were held to a goalless draw by 10-man Malaga on Saturday and replaced at the summit of La Liga.'Los Blancos made just the two changes from their midweek 2-1 win at Athletic Bilbao, Nacho and Jese replacing Pepe and Mateo Kovacic, but their lack of invention in the first half-hour resulted in a growing chorus of boos from the Santiago Bernabeu faithful.
Cristiano Ronaldo remained on 321 goals after two matches without any luck, and a profligate first half was compounded by a series of misguided headers and failure to beat Carlos Kameni one-on-one.
However, he showed signs of waking up in the latter stages of the opening 45 as he forced Kameni into action with a thumping, first-time volley, which the goalkeeper impressively kept out.
Malaga, on the other hand, fluffed arguably the best chance of the evening, Juankar at the far post failing to steer a low cross on target, despite being unmarked.
Kameni looked to grow into the match with each passing save as he pounced on Karim Benzema’s through ball before Ronaldo could get there, before extending himself to put off Isco from sliding Marcelo’s deep cross home.